SACRAMENTO  Even after supporting legislation that would have banned such gifts, more than a dozen state senators accepted Disneyland passes, Pebble Beach golf outings and NASCAR tickets from firms lobbying them for special treatment.

State senators last year overwhelmingly approved a measure that sought to impose a limited ban on some of the smaller considerations that lawmakers get from corporations and other interest groups that employ lobbyists.

The gifts were chosen by a lawmaker who wanted broader reform, but he settled on banning a list of items that he determined could have no possible defense or public policy rationale — concerts, amusement parks tickets, professional sporting events, spa treatments, gift cards and recreational outings such as golf, hunting, fishing or skiing.

The bill did not propose to rein in the more expansive gifts given to lawmakers — tens of thousands of dollars in unlimited travel paid for by foreign governments or nonprofits. Those would still have been allowed under the legislation.

Thirty-four of the Senate’s 40 members agreed and voted for the limited ban, which died in the Assembly. U-T Watchdog followed up to see whether those senators went on to accept gifts that seemed on their face as if they would have fallen under the prohibition.

They did — to the tune of $6,150 worth, according to 2012 disclosure forms recently filed.

“I personally believe that such gifts are corrosive to the public trust and for that reason alone the practice should end,” said the bill’s author, former Sen. Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo. “It creates an undue appearance and with some legislators it produces the fact of influence, which should not occur.”

Among the gifts senators accepted after voting for the ban were racetrack tickets from the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, Disneyland Park passes from Walt Disney Co., and a fishing trip furnished by Humboldt Redwood Co.

Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, voted with 33 of his colleagues to approve the bill on May 31. About a week later, he accepted a $414 ticket package from California Exposition and State Fair. Steinberg said through a spokesman that he doesn’t view that as inconsistent.

“The Pro Tem abides by the reporting requirements as they exist,” Steinberg spokesman Mark Hedlund said. “If they change, he will continue to do so.”

Senate Republican leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, went to a Creedence Clearwater Revisited concert as part of a $186.50 package of meals and lodging from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.

“My support for the legislation authored by Senator Blakeslee is not diminished,” Huff said. “I voted for it before, would vote for it again and will abide by it should it be written into law.”

Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, said lawmakers were attempting to have it both ways by appearing to favor reform measures and then not adhering to them.

“You can call that an example of having your cake and eating it, too,’” he said, “but only if that cake was very, very expensive.”

Schnur and other supporters of the bans contend that gift recipients often feel a sense of reciprocity to those bestowing freebies on them.

“Let’s agree that very few legislators will switch their vote in return for a basketball or concert ticket,” he said. “But it’s human nature to allow the person who gave you that gift a little bit more access and a little bit more of an opportunity to make the case for or against a bill that’s important to them.”

Josh Rubinstein, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, said the organization is directly and indirectly responsible for 50,000 jobs in the state and contributes roughly $2.5 billion annually toward California’s economy.

“Occasionally hosting public officials allows us to demonstrate firsthand the reasons for our positive impact on California,” Rubinstein said. “At the end of the day, we are a customer-driven business, and we are grateful for any individual (public official or private citizen) that makes time to attend an event here … and then passes on the word about the great time that was had and the positive virtues of Del Mar.”

Sens. Ted Gaines, R-Rocklin, and Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, were among the top recipients of gifts after voting in favor of the ban.

Cannella reported two tickets valued at $420 to the U.S. Open Championship in San Francisco from AT&T and its affiliates; $378 in green fees from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association; $305 in racetrack passes from the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and $100 in San Francisco Giants tickets from Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

“I voted for SB 1426 because I believe there is merit to restricting the types of gifts that can be given to the legislature,” Cannella said. “I can only speak for myself in that if I am given tickets to a sporting event, I am not influenced by those who provide them to me. I make decisions based upon what is in the best interest of my constituents.”

Gaines, who co-authored the gift ban, reported receiving $582 in tickets to the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway from FedEx and Anheuser Busch. Gaines also took $75 of golf at Pebble Beach from the Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies.

Gaines declined a U-T request for comment.

Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, cast the lone vote against the gift ban. He then continued to take applicable gifts.

“I believe that informed voters are the real solution to preventing corruption,” Anderson said. “That’s why I support full transparency and online disclosure.”

The gift ban faced trouble when the state’s ethics watchdog opposed it, citing $200,000 of increased costs annually to enforce it. Schnur, a former chairman of the FPPC, suggested paying for that by reducing legislator daily expense payments by $5 a day.

“One of the first things that you learn in government is that you can always find a reason not to do something,” he said. “If anyone either in the Legislature or on the FPPC thought that this was an important thing to do the chances of it happening would grow exponentially.”

Blakeslee, who mounted several previous gift ban efforts and now heads the California Reform Institute, said he did not get the sense that the willpower was there.

“I would candidly say that during those years I pushed the gift ban it was neither loved nor embraced by either party and many legislators were quite blunt when they told me they wished I would cease and desist,” Blakeslee said. “In a friendly way, but they were blunt. It was like, ‘please, why are you doing this?’”